After the NATO summit in Washington, the leaders of the 32 NATO countries issued a joint statement expressing concern about the deepening ties between China and Russia, accusing China of playing a key role in the Russia-Ukraine war. The joint statement pointed out that China has provided a lot of help to Russia's defense industrial base, and this has become a "direct push" for Russia's offensive against Ukraine.
NATO demanded that China stop all economic and political support for Russia, including the export of dual-use technology, materials and components to Russia, and issued a warning that NATO would take measures against it.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that this is the first time that NATO has used China as a "key promoter" to promote the Russian-Ukrainian war, and this is also the toughest warning message to Russia.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
In response, the spokesman of the mainland mission in Europe responded on July 11 that NATO's joint statement is full of belligerent remarks, a provocation and smear against China, China is not a party to the Russian-Ukrainian war, nor is it the maker of the Russian-Ukrainian war, China will neither add fuel to the fire, nor will it take the opportunity to make profits, and advise certain countries to do more things conducive to world peace. Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the United States, also said that China strictly controls dual-use export materials and has never provided any weapons and equipment to the warring parties.
In addition, in this highly smearing and provocative joint statement, NATO shamelessly demanded that China and NATO engage in dialogue to reduce strategic risks. NATO said that China's nuclear arsenal is expanding rapidly and that it also has more delivery vehicles, so it requires China to improve the transparency and stability of its nuclear weapons and ensure strategic security between China and NATO.
But NATO presents a paradoxical approach. At the same time, the joint statement also pointed out that it hopes to strengthen NATO's own strategic nuclear deterrence capability, increase the proportion of military spending in GDP, expand NATO's internal nuclear sharing policy, and let all NATO member states participate in NATO's overall nuclear weapons planning.
In other words, the joint statement calls on China not to expand its nuclear arsenal to ensure NATO's "strategic security" on the one hand, and to strengthen its own "nuclear arsenal" on the other, in order to ensure NATO's "strategic security." Therefore, the content of this joint statement is still in essence the typical hegemonic logic of "I can but you can't" of Western countries.
And the day after NATO issued the joint statement, that is, less than 24 hours, Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and foreign minister, made a phone call with the new foreign minister of the Netherlands, Feldkamp. During the phone call, Wang Yi said that China and the Netherlands are a comprehensive cooperative partnership, and the relations between the two countries are developing in a steady direction, which has also brought tangible benefits to the two peoples. China is willing to continue to maintain close contact with the new Netherlands government, carry out dialogue, play a role in the healthy development of China-EU relations, and strengthen cooperation with Netherlands to ensure the stability of global supply chains.
At the same time, Wang Yi also criticized in person on the phone, saying that the China-related content of the NATO summit was a naked and groundless accusation. China is the most responsible power in the world on international security issues, and it also has the best record. China has always been the backbone of world peace. Differences in ideology and political systems should not be a reason for NATO countries to confront China.
Wang yi
Feldkamp said that China has huge influence in the world and is also the largest economic and trade partner of Netherlands in Asia, Netherlands hopes that the two sides can carry out cooperation and mutual benefit, in the case of global geopolitical turmoil, Netherlands does not approve of "decoupling" from China, and stressed that the contradictions between China and Europe on economic and trade issues should not affect the normal commercial and trade exchanges between China and the Netherlands, and Netherlands is willing to continue to maintain dialogue and communication with China and develop relations with China.
In addition, Feldkamp also said that the purpose of NATO's existence is to maintain the security of NATO member states themselves, and NATO is a defensive organization.
Netherlands former Prime Minister Mark · Rutte
Judging from this NATO summit, Feldkamp's statement on NATO may be the answer that China wants. On the one hand, Netherlands is a member of NATO and has a decent relationship with China. On the other hand, former Netherlands Prime Minister Mark · Rutte will succeed Stoltenberg as NATO Secretary General, which may play a certain "cooling" role in the relationship between China and NATO. At the end of March, Netherlands Prime Minister Rutte visited China, during which he said that he would ensure that Netherlands' export controls were not specifically targeted at specific countries, and that "decoupling" was not Netherlands' China policy.
On the issue of NATO, he also said that after he took office as NATO secretary general, he would devote himself to promoting relations between NATO and Asia, because this is crucial to global peace and stability. He himself stressed that he was an old friend of China. Therefore, this ordinary phone call from Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Feldkan is not only a criticism of NATO, but also a signal to Netherlands, hoping that after Rutte becomes NATO secretary general, he can play a role in easing relations and avoid pushing China and NATO towards a full-scale confrontation.